


Here's to You, California

by mediocrewriterboy



Category: South Park
Genre: Basically Craig and Stan's gang without Cartman, Craig lives in California, I mean not to the fic but to my heart, Internet Friends AU, SHES VERY IMPORTANT, T for swearing, TRANS GIRL KENNY, Trans Kenny McCormick, Transphobia, and it's not Creek, but I finally did it, duh it's South Park, here it is, i forgot, im not sure where it came from but go with it, its slight and only a mention but it's there, shrugs, sighs, sorry??, they're in junior high about to be high school, took me three different times to actually write this, trans craig tucker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-12
Packaged: 2019-02-13 22:36:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12993990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mediocrewriterboy/pseuds/mediocrewriterboy
Summary: No one believed Craig when he told people at school he was actually a boy, so he just found friends on the internet who would only meet him as a boy.





	Here's to You, California

**Author's Note:**

> I dunno, guys it's five am and I started this at almost three am
> 
> Title? I dunno, dude

"It's just bullshit, dude. I cut all my hair off, dress full guy, but those idiots are like, "Oh, hey Carrie, still doing the whole butch thing?" Like, no, asshole, I'm a guy. I'd threaten to whip out my dick but I can't do that." 

"Mostly 'cause you don't have one."

"Yet! Jesus Christ, dude, rude." Craig narrowed his eyes at the camera on his laptop and Stan only grinned. 

"Sorry, dude, I was just saying." He defended with his hands up. "Why don't you just switch schools? I'm sure there are, like, ten different middle schools in your city alone. California is fucking massive." Stan said, leaning out of the camera shortly before he sat back up to throw a tennis ball into the hallway, his dog running after it.

Craig sighed loudly, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms over his chest. "Dad doesn't want me switching schools until I'm done with middle school. He said before high school I could."

"Weak," Stan sympathized and Craig rolled his eyes.

"I'm telling you, dude, I'm just gonna take a Greyhound to Colorado one day. Have you or one of the other guys hide me away. This shit sucks." Craig complained, running his hands up his face and into his hair.

Stan pulled his legs up to his chest and hugged them, chin on his knees. "You pull on my parents' heart strings enough, they'd cave. But we don't have a spare room so they'd probably be suspicious about," he made a hand motion to Craig.

He rolled his eyes. "Just because I have titties doesn't mean I'd be flaunting them out. That's the point of a binder." He said, snapping the elastic of his sports bra. It was too warm for his actual binder.

"You don't have to justify it to me!" Stan said, holding his hands back up and shaking his head. "Maybe Kenny would house you better. Since he-- er, she is going through kind of the same thing as you."

Craig raised an eyebrow, picking at his lip as he eyed Stan. "What same thing?"

"The trans thing, dude. She's known about it since elementary school, I told you about the Princess Kenny thing. She just kinda stuck with it." Stan shrugged. "And you're gay as hell so there wouldn't be a problem." He grinned when Craig flipped him off.

"Whatever," he said, looking over his shoulder when he heard his mom call his name. He turned back to Stan. "Gotta go, dude. Better be prepared for when I knock on your fuckin' door tomorrow." He grinned crookedly and Stan only narrowed his eyes before they closed out Skype.

The next day Craig sat down at his desk, he was holding an ice pack to his cheek. It was the same thing every few weeks; gym class. He always waited until all the other boys were gone to start changing, so he didn't know why they still got mad and would willingly wait behind just to try and "beat him back to normal."

"Fucking morons," Craig sniffled, touching his sensitive nose until Stan answered with a quick, panting, "Hey!" that made Craig jump a bit in surprise. "What the hell's wrong with you?" He asked as he took in Stan's lopsided beanie and half taken off jacket.

"My mom said you were calling so I ran back inside. I was playing football with Kyle, he's probably gonna come up too." Stan said, shedding his jacket and gloves.

Craig rolled his eyes. "You can miss a Skype call, dude, I would've survived." 

"What happened to you?" Stan asked, sidestepping Craig's comment entirely. "Go to the dentist? No, orthodontist, that one." He corrected himself, still catching his breath and leaning close to his camera to fix his beanie.

"The same dicks that tried to beat me up a couple weeks ago. I don't know why either, I don't change in front of them so why are they so bent out of shape?" Craig asked rhetorically, reaching into his mouth to feel his brackets and where they had shredded at his gums. 

Stan frowned when he leaned back. "Weak, seriously. It's more effort to do that than leave you alone."

"Thank you. Jesus Christ, if a little podunk mountain kid can figure it out, who couldn't?" Craig taunted and Stan flipped him off just as Kyle slid into his room with a, "Dude, what the hell? Oh, hey Craig." Craig waved his free hand. "Hey," 

"Damn, Craig, you alright?" Kyle asked, leaning on the back of Stan's chair after he tossed the football into his closet.

"Yes, Mom, I'm fine." Craig answered like it pained him to have them worry over him. "It wasn't even anything bad, they just got two hits on me until I managed to get out. Kinda sucked standing in the hallway in my binder and boxers, though. My teacher tried to give me detention until he saw the other guys come out yelling, "Get back here, fucking weirdo." And guess who got out of detention." He said, motioning to himself before dipping his head into his elbow, making Stan and Kyle laugh.

"That's still pretty shitty, though. Sorry about that, dude." Kyle said, frowning lightly.

"Yeah, maybe try to change in the bathroom or something instead of the locker room." Stan suggested with a shrug of his shoulders.

Craig shrugged back. "Maybe. My mom called to yell at the principle for an "assigned safe place," but like, nothing has changed in the past two years of the same shit so why try to bother now?" He asked, setting aside the ice pack and leaning of office chair back with a soft sigh, moving his cheek in discomfort.

"Weak," Stan and Kyle dragged.

"Just the rest of this year and then it's high school. Tell me I can do it, guys." Craig said, folding his arms over his face.

"You can do it, man! Just start kicking ass first." Kyle smiled.

"Seriously, though, if someone's coming at you, just swing first. That's usually what I do, although I did that and accidentally hit Bebe one time and she actually kicked my ass. She's really tough." Stan muttered to himself before shaking his head and looking back to his laptop. "You gonna be online later? We should play something." 

Craig didn't even have to hear Stan finish the sentence with, "to get your mind off of things" to know that was what he meant, but for once, Craig didn't feel the urge to deny him. "Yeah, I'll be on, later. We're not playing Portal again because you don't do it right." 

"I do, too!" Stan gaped.

"You really don't, you just kind put the portals in the floor until it crashes the game." Kyle added and Craig laughed dryly at the expression of betrayal on Stan's face.

"You're both jerks and I hate you." Stan whined before he yelled as Kyle pulled his beanie down over his face, making himself and Craig laugh.

"I gotta go to a stupid play my sister's in, so I'll text you guys when I get back and we can play something Stan is absolute crap at." Craig said, already standing up from his desk and pressing the ice pack back to his face. 

"Alright, man, have fun. We'll see you later! Kenny might join us if she wants to, dunno yet." Stan shrugged.

"We'll ask her then tell you," Kyle added and waved when Craig walked back over. 

"Bye!" They all said before ending the call and Craig started playing music as he started to get ready for Tricia's play, ridding himself of his clothes to search through his closet for something adequate.

It wasn't often that Craig found himself genuinely feeling sad. The heavy-gutted kind that made him want to lay on his bed and cover himself with blankets and pillows until he was calm enough to let his eyes rest. But the days still came around, wether it be from staring at his reflection for too long when he was changing, the bold, black material of his binder a constant reminder, or when he thought about how his only friends were two states away, three if he counted Arizona.

No matter their kindness and ways of trying to cheer him up, wether it be Jimmy's shaky Snapchat videos with his daily jokes, Leopold's memes, Tweek's constant flow of texts that first bothered Craig but now was a comfort, or Token sending a picture of an empty gaming chair with Craig's name embroidered in the side, it still made him feel more alone than he cared for.

Picking up his head and looking away from his mirror, he pulled on a hoody and one of his nicer pairs of jeans. He paused his music, shut his laptop, and pulled on his hat on his way out of his room. 

Craig's phone was out of his pocket instantly, plugging in his earbuds as they got into the car so he could catch up on Snapchat stories and listen to music as he read through Tweek's messages and reply to each one. A small, fleeting smile came to his lips as he watched a video from Clyde of Token and Tweek in the snow, laughing and yelling at each other before Clyde shrieked as snow was pegged at his neck and into his shirt.

"Dad, I wanna go to Colorado." 

 

////••••\\\\\\\

 

"I haven't heard from Craig in awhile, are we sure he's alright?" Stan asked, sitting back on one of the benches around Stark's Pond.

"I haven't heard from him in a couple of days," Token said, looking up from where he was tying his skates.

"Y-yeah, me n-neither." Jimmy added in sat beside Stan and making him hum shortly.

"Maybe he's just been busy?" Tweek suggested, eye squinting shut briefly as he moved onto the frozen pond with Clyde and Scott Malkinson, Leopold and Kenny sliding back closer to see what was happening.

"I guess... Did he tell anyone something was coming up?" Stan asked, looking to each person in the group. He groaned when they shrugged.

Kyle walked up and set his skates on the bench, pausing with eyebrows drawn together when everyone looked to him. "What did I miss, what's wrong?" 

"We haven't heard from Craig in a few days, I was just asking around to see if anyone had." Stan answered.

"I haven't heard anything since Tuesday. Do you think he's okay? He was saying something about getting in trouble at school last time I talked to him." Kyle said quietly, looking between everyone and everyone between each other.

Silence sat over the group for awhile before Tweek broke it. "Well, Jesus, I hope he's not hurt!" He exclaimed, hands bunching up the front of his shirt.

"Well, gee, I'm sure he isn't hurt! Right, Kenny?" Leopold asked, looking to Kenny as she nodded, giving a muffled agreement.

"It's not like he hasn't gotten in trouble before!" Scott Malkinson added in for just a little more reassurance. 

"Or I don't have unlimited data so I've had to wait for wifi and even then I wanted it to be a surprise."

Everyone froze and slowly turned around, smiles quickly forming as they shouted, "Craig!" and ran for him, the ones on their skates taking just a little longer as everyone with shoes threw themselves into a group hug around Craig.

Questions of excitement filled the otherwise quiet park, back slaps and handshakes getting exchanged in the mix, even a kiss on the cheek from Kenny that had Craig shoving her back into Leopold, who caught her, laughing.

"I told you I was gonna take a Greyhound here, Stan." Craig grinned after everyone had given him space but still surrounding him.

Stan grinned back and bumped Craig's shoulder with his fist. "Shut up, dude,"

"Craig, come skate with us!" Tweek said from the edge of the pond, a shoddy hockey stick in his hands.

"I've never skated before." He answered quietly, everyone shouting with a resounding, "What?" He was quickly dragged to the frozen pond, snow boots traded for Kyle's pair of skates he gladly handed over for the first lesson of skating.

**Author's Note:**

> I promised trans Craig and goddammit, I will deliver


End file.
